THE ARCANE ARCHIVE

Asatru FAQ Part 1

To: alt.pagan
From: an194413@anon.penet.fi
Subject: Re: Asatru FAQ Part 1 by Steve McNallen
Date: 11 Feb 1995 12:46:23 -0800
WHAT IS ASATRU?
Long before Christianity came to northern Europe, the people
there - our ancestors - had their own religions. One of these was
Asatru. It was practiced in the lands that are today Scandinavia,
England, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and other countries as well.
Asatru is the original or native religious belief for the peoples who
lived in these regions.
WHAT DOES THE WORD "ASATRU" MEAN?
It means, roughly, "belief in the Gods" in Old Norse, the
language of ancient Scandinavia in which so much of our source material
was written. Asatru is the name by which the Norsemen called their
religion.
WHEN DID ASATRU START?
Asatru is thousands of years old. Its beginnings are lost in
prehistory, but it is older than Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or most
other religions. The spiritual impulses it expresses are as ancient as
the European peoples themselves - at least 40,000 years, and perhaps much
older.
WHY DO WE NEED ASATRU? AREN'T MOST PEOPLE WHO WANT RELIGION SATISFIED
WITH CHRISTIANITY OR ONE OF THE OTHER "ESTABLISHED" RELIGIONS?
People are attracted to the better-known religions because they
have genuine spiritual needs which must be filled. People are looking
for community and for answers to the "big questions": What life is all
about, and how we should live it. For many people today, the so-called
major faiths do not have answers that work. Asatru has answers, but it has
not been an alternative for most seekers because they haven't known about
it. Once they realize that there is another way - a better, more
natural, more honorable way - they will not be satisfied with anything
less than a return to the religion of their ancestors.
WHY IS THE RELIGION OF OUR ANCESTORS THE BEST ONE FOR US?
Because we are more like our ancestors than we are like anyone
else. We inherited not only their general physical appearance, but also
their predominant mental, emotional, and spiritual traits. We think and
feel more like they did; our basic needs are most like theirs. the
religion which best expressed their innermost nature - Asatru - is better
suited to us than is some other creed which started in the Middle East
among people who are essentially different from us. Judaism, Islam, and
Christianity are alien religions which do not truly speak to our souls.
WHY DID ASATRU DIE OUT IF IT WAS THE RIGHT RELIGION FOR EUROPEANS?
Asatru was subjected to a violent campaign of repression over a
period of hundreds of years. Countless thousands of people were
murdered, maimed, and exiled in the process. The common people (your
ancestors!) did not give up their cherished beliefs easily. eventually,
the monolithic organization of the Christian church, bolstered by threats
of economic isolation and assisted by an energetic propaganda campaign,
triumphed over the valiant but unsophisticated tribes.
Or so it seemed! Despite this persecution, elements of Asatru
continued down to our own times - often in the guise of folklore -
proving that our own native religion appeals to our innermost beings in a
fundamental way. Now, a thousand years after its supposed demise, it is
alive and growing. Indeed, so long as there are men and women of
European descent, it cannot really die because it springs form the soul
of our people. Asatru isn't just what we BELIEVE, it's what we ARE.
... to be continued
Written by: Steve McNallen Posted by: Bekkhild
Asatru Folk Assembly AFA Computer
P.O. Box 445 Guild
Nevada City, CA 95959 with permission
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To: alt.pagan
From: an194413@anon.penet.fi
Subject: Re: Asatru FAQ Part II by Steve McNallen
Date: 11 Feb 1995 12:48:20 -0800
THE ASATRU FOLK ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCTION TO ASATRU
Copyright (C) 1995 by Stephen A. McNallen
Part II
WASN'T THE ACCEPTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY A SIGN OF CIVILIZATION - A STEP
UP FROM BARBARISM?
No! The atrocities committed by Christians, Muslims, and Jews
throughout history are hardly a step up from anything. The so-called
"barbarians" who followed Asatru (the Vikings, the various Germanic
tribes, and so forth) were the source of our finest civilized
traditions - trial by jury, parliaments, Anglo Saxon common law, and
the rights of women, to name a few. Our very word "law" comes from
the Norse language, not from the tongues of the Christian lands. We
simply did not and do not need Christianity to be civilized.
YOU SAY ASATRU WAS THE RELIGION OF THE VIKINGS, AMONG OTHER EARLY
EUROPEAN CULTURES. WEREN'T THEY A PRETTY BLOODTHIRSTY LOT?
Modern historians agree that the Vikings were no more violent than the
other peoples of their times. Remember, the descriptions of Viking
raids and invasions were all written by their enemies, who were hardly
unbiased. Both the Islamic and Christian cultures used means every
bit as bloody, if not more so, than the Norsemen. It was a very rough
period in history for all concerned!
WE KEEP TALKING ABOUT THE VIKINGS. DOES THIS MEAN THAT ASATRU IS ONLY
FOR PEOPLE OF SCANDINAVIAN ANCESTRY?
No. Asatru, as practiced by the Norse peoples, had so much in common
with the religion of the other Germanic tribes, and with their cousins
the Celts, that it may be thought of as one version of a general
European religion. Asatru is for all European peoples, whether or not
their heritage is specifically Scandinavian.
WHAT ARE THE BASIC BELIEFS OF ASATRU?
We believe in an underlying, all-pervading divine energy or essence
which is generally hidden from us, and which is beyond our immediate
understanding. We further believe that this spiritual reality is
interdependent with us - that we affect it, and it affects us.
We believe that this underlying divinity expresses itself to us in the
forms of the Gods and Goddesses. Stories about these deities are like
a sort of code, the mysterious "language" through which the divine
reality speaks to us.
We believe in standards of behavior which are consistent with these
spiritual truths and harmonious with our deepest being.
HOW DOES ASATRU DIFFER FROM OTHER RELIGIONS?
Asatru is unlike the better-known religions in many ways. Some of
these are:
We are polytheistic. That is, we believe in a number of deities,
including Goddesses as well as Gods. We do not accept the idea of
"original sin", the notion that we are tainted from birth and
intrinsically bad, as does Christianity. Thus, we do not need
"saving".
The Middle Eastern religions teach either a hatred of other religions
or a duty to convert others, often by force. They have often practiced
these beliefs with cruel brutality.
We do not claim to be a universal religion or a faith for all of
humankind. In fact, we don't think such a thing is possible or
desirable. The different branches of humanity have different ways of
looking at the world, each of which is valid for them. It is only
right that they have different religions, which of course they do.
DO YOU CONSIDER THE NORSE MYTHS TO BE TRUE?
The myths are stories about the Gods and Goddesses of Asatru. They
are ways of stating religious truths. That is, we would say they
contain truths about the nature of divinity, our own nature, and the
relationship between the two. We do not contend that the myths are
literally true, as history.
WHAT ABOUT THESE GODS AND GODDESSES? ARE THEY REAL?
Yes, they are real. However, just as most Christians do not think
their God is really an old bearded figure sitting on a golden chair in
heaven, we do not believe Thor (for example) is actually a muscular,
man-shaped entity carrying a big hammer. There is a real Thor, but we
approach an understanding of him through this particular mental
picture.
DO FOLLOWERS OF ASATRU PRAY TO THEIR GODS AND GODDESSES?
Yes, but not quite the way most people mean by the word. We never
surrender our will to theirs or humble ourselves before them, because
we see ourselves as their kin, not as inferior, submissive pawns. Nor
do we beg and plead. We commune with them and honor them while
seeking their blessing through formal rites and informal meditation.
Living a full and virtuous live is a form of prayer in itself. Our
religion affects all parts of our lives, not just those fragments that
we choose to call "religious".
DON'T YOU WORSHIP STONES AND TREES AND IDOLS?
No. These objects are not Gods, so we don't worship them. We do
sometimes use these items as reminders of a God or Goddess, and we
believe they can become "charged" with a certain aspect of the divine
energy, but we would never confuse them with the actual deity!
To be continued ...
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For more information, contact:
Posted by Bekkhild Ellsworth
The Asatru Folk Assembly an194413@anon.penet.fi
P.O. Box 445
Nevada City, CA 95959 - with permission
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To: alt.religion.asatru
From: an194413@anon.penet.fi
Subject: Asatru FAQ Part III by Steve McNallen
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 20:30:30 UTC
Asatru Folk Assembly FAQ: Part III
copyright (c) 1995 by Stephen A. McNallen
WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS OF BEHAVIOR TAUGHT IN ASATRU?
Some of the qualities we hold in high regard are strength, courage,
joy, honor, freedom, loyalty to kin, realism, vigor, and the revering
of our ancestors. To express these things in our lives is virtuous,
and we strive to do this. Their opposites - weakness, cowardice,
adherence to dogma rather than to the realities of the world, and the
like - constitute vices and are to be avoided. Proper behavior in
Asatru consists of maximizing one's virtues and minimizing one's
vices. This code of conduct reflects the highest and most heroic
ideals of our people.
DON'T ALL RELIGIONS BELIEVE IN THESE THINGS YOU'VE JUST NAMED?
No. People may honestly believe that this is the case, but examination
does not bear this out. They believe in freedom, yet their scriptures
say they are slaves to their God. They accept that joy is good, but
their teachings laden them with guilt because of some imaginary
"original sin". Their instinct is to understand Nature's world from
verifiable evidence, yet they are trained to believe black is white,
round is flat, and natural instincts are evil without question when
the teachings of their church conflict with reason or with known
facts.
Many of us instinctively believe in the values of Asatru because they
have been passed down to us from our ancestors. We want to believe
that other religions espouse those values, so we see what we want to
see. Most people just haven't yet realized that the major religions
are saying things that conflict with the values we know in our hearts
are right. To find northern European virtues, one should look where
those virtues have their natural home - Asatru.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT GOOD AND EVIL?
Good and evil are not constants. What is good in one case will not be
good in another, and evil in one circumstance will not be evil under a
different set of conditions. In any one instance, the right course of
action will have been shaped by the influence of the past and the
present. The result may or may not be "good" or "evil", but it will
still be the right action.
In no case are good and evil dictated to us by the edicts of an alien,
authoritarian deity, as in the Middle East. We are expected to use
our freedom, responsibility, and awareness of duty to serve the
highest and best ends.
WHAT DOES ASATRU TEACH ABOUT AN AFTERLIFE?
We believe that there is an afterlife, and that those who have lived
virtuous lives will go on to experience greater fulfillment, pleasure,
and challenge. Those who have led lives characterized more by vice
than by virtue will be separated from kin and doomed to an existence
of dullness and gloom. The precise nature of the afterlife - what it
will look like and feel like - is beyond our understanding and is
dealt with symbolically in the myths.
There is also a tradition in Asatru of rebirth within the family line.
Perhaps the individual is able to choose whether or not he or she is
re-manifested in this world, or there may be natural laws which govern
this. In a sense, of course, we all live on in our descendents quite
apart from an afterlife as such.
We of Asatru do not overly concern ourselves with the next life. We
live here and now, in this life. If we do this and do it well, the
next life will take care of itself.
DOES ASATRU INVOLVE ANCESTOR WORSHIP?
Asatru says we should honor our ancestors. It also says we are bonded
to those ancestors in a special way. However, we do not actually
worship them.
We believe our forebears have passed to us certain spiritual qualities
just as surely as they have given us various physical traits. They
live on in us. The family or clan is above and beyond the limits of
time and place. Thus we have a reverence for our ancestry even though
we do not involve ourselves in ancestor worship as such.
DOES ASATRU HAVE A HOLY BOOK, LIKE THE BIBLE?
No. There are written sources which are useful to us because they
contain much of our sacred lore in the form of myths and examples of
right conduct, but we do not accept them as infallible or inspired
documents. Any religion which does this is deceiving its members
about the purity and precision of the written word. The various
competing factions of Middle Eastern religions are proof of this.
Their conflicting interpretations can not all be correct!
There are two real sources of holy truth, and neither expresses itself
to us in words. One is the universe around us, which is a
manifestation of the underlying divine essence. The other is the
universe within us, passed down from our ancestors as instinct,
emotion, innate predispositions, and perhaps even racial memory. By
combining these sources of internal and external wisdom with the
literature left us by our ancestors, we arrive at religious truths.
This living spiritual guidance is better than any dusty, dogmatic
"holy book", whose writings are often so ambiguous that even clerical
scholars disagree and whose interpretations change with the politics
of the times.
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For more information write to: posted by: Bekkhild
AFA Computer Guild
Asatru Folk Assembly
P.O. Box 445 by permission
Neveda City, CA 95959
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